The unauthorized copying and distribution (also referred to herein as “piracy”) of audio-visual content such as motion pictures, music, the spoken word, photos or printed text has and continues to be a major problem for owners of such content. For example, the Recording Industry Association of America (“RIAA”) has asserted that physical goods piracy costs the United States recording industry alone hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and around the world, many billions of dollars annually.
With the advent of the Internet and the growing popularity of digital A/V content, the problem of piracy has grown to new dimensions. The availability of these and other new technologies have made the problem of unauthorized copying so pervasive that virtually anyone owning a personal computer or Internet appliance can be a participant in copyright infringement. Under such circumstances, the rights of copyright owners are increasingly being violated and their rightful profits lost.
Audio Distribution
Music type A/V content, for example, is easily generated today from audio compact disc (“CD”) using “ripper” software. As shown in FIG. 1, to generate A/V content 104, original audio on a CD 101 is played on an optical drive 102 and CD “ripper” software 103 creates the digital A/V content 104 from the output of the optical drive 102. Preferably, the A/V content 104 is in the form of a computer file in the MP3 format. A/V content 104 created in this way is a quite accurate representation of the original audio. Once created, it is an easy matter to transfer the A/V content 104 over the Internet 111 to other parties without the receiving parties paying for the rights to the audio. For example, the growth of online music communities, such as can be found at www.napster.com, or formed as a Gnutella community through software made available at www.gnutella.wego.com, facilitate a viral-type spread of audio content as music consumers browse and transfer content freely and easily between themselves without compensation to the content owners.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a Napster virtual network 100. A list server computer 105 has a memory 106 storing list data 107 that includes the identities of consumer client computers currently on-line, the music or other A/V content available from each consumer client computer, and the Internet connection speed associated with each consumer client computer. In this example, consumer client computers 108, 109 and 110 are currently on-line, having contacted and made a connection with the list server computer 105 over the Internet 111. Consumer client computers 108, 109 and 110 interact with the list server computer 105 in a classic client-server relationship to access the list data 107 over the Internet 111. This allows operators of consumer client computers 108, 109 and 110 to then select which music and from which other consumer client computer to transfer music from. For example, as depicted by dotted lines in FIG. 1, if the operator of consumer client computer 109 has selected A/V content 104 to download from consumer client computer 108, then consumer client computer 109 interacts with consumer client computer 108 in a client-server type manner to transfer a copy of the A/V content 104 to its memory 113.
In the case of Napster-type sites such as depicted in FIG. 1, the list server 105 doesn't actually store music, nor does the music ever actually transit through the list server 105 or its memory 106. The list server 105 does maintain the centralized data list 107, however, and consequently, the person or entity that generates the centralized data list 107 on the list server 105 may be subject to legal liability. To avoid the visibility that the centralized data list serving entity provides, other methods for transferring music between cooperating parties have been devised. One such method is the Gnutella community approach.
FIG. 2. illustrates an example of a Gnutella virtual network 200. In this case, there is no list server. Each of the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 may act as either a client or a server, depending upon whether it is receiving music from or transferring music to another consumer computer. When running the Gnutella application software, each of the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 maintains a list of other consumer computers that it knows the IP address of in the Gnutella virtual network 200. A special feature of the Gnutella application software is that each of the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 need only know the IP address of one other consumer computer in the Gnutella virtual network 200 to provide access to all consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 in the Gnutella virtual network 200. Each of the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 is then able to submit search queries to the Gnutella virtual network 200 and receive search results. Thus, when an operator of one of the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 finds a piece of music that he or she desires to obtain, they can indicate this to the Gnutella application software, and the Gnutella application software facilitates a direct transfer from a consumer computer including such music to the requesting consumer computer through the Internet 205. As an example, the solid lines between the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 and the Internet 205 are representative of the transfer of search queries and search results between the consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204. The dotted lines, on the other hand, are representative of an actual transfer of a copy of music 214 from the consumer computer 203 to the consumer computer 204 through the Internet 205 after the operator of consumer computer 204 has made a selection of that music.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a coupling diagram for the Gnutella virtual network 200 where Alice, Charlie, Eve and Bob are pseudonyms for consumer computers 201, 202, 203 and 204 respectively. In the example, Alice knows that Charlie is coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200 (i.e., Charlie is on-line) since she knows his IP address, but does not know that Eve and Bob are coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200; Charlie knows that Alice and Eve are coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200 (i.e., Alice and Eve are online) since he has their IP addresses, but does not know that Bob is coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200; Eve knows that Bob and Charlie are coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200 (i.e., Bob and Charlie are on-line) since she knows their IP addresses, but does not know that Alice is coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200; and Bob knows that Eve is coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200 (i.e., Eve is on-line) since he knows her IP address, but does not know that Alice and Charlie are coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200. As can be appreciated, since Alice, Charlie, Eve and Bob do not know the identities of all other consumer computers coupled to the Gnutella virtual network 200, the Gnutella application software provides protective anonymity to the unknown consumer computers shielding them from detection and possible prosecution for copyright infringement.
There have been initiatives to create secure environments for the download, distribution and listening of digital music from the Internet from groups such as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). This system uses encryption to control access to music content and watermarks or embedded data to control equipment (either to control recording or control playback) once the content has been decrypted. This system has the disadvantage that it requires introduction of a completely new class of portable music player devices before it is effective. If these devices prove to be unacceptable in the marketplace, then the SDMI system is ineffective and does nothing to encourage consumers to purchase legal copies of digital A/V content versus continuing to rip and transfer music derived from CD's.
Theatrical Presentation
Movie content owners obtain a significant portion of their return on investment in the production of a movie during the theatrical release. The theatrical release precedes the release to other channels such as in-flight entertainment, cable TV pay-per-view channels or videotape in order to maximize the return on the investment. Content distributed illegally during the theatrical release represents a reduction in the content owner's early rate of return. With current film-based theatrical presentation, the use by pirates of a camcorder in a theater provides the primary mechanism for obtaining movie content during the theatrical release window.
The introduction of digital content into theater operations allows for the use of automation systems in theaters. A theater automation system allows a theater owner to operate his facility with a smaller staff size, to more rapidly ramp up and ramp down the number of screens available for any particular piece of content, and to provide for an overall improvement in the efficiencies of his operations. These theater automation systems also allow the theater operator to rapidly communicate box office information to the distributor thus allowing the distributor and eventually the copyright holder to operate more efficiently.
FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a digital theater system 400 that allows for the distribution of movies in a high quality digital form. A distribution server 401 distributes the movies to a theater client 402 through a secure transmission path 403 using satellite or fiber optic, or alternatively, by optical or magnetic media (not shown). The projection of the movie content in a digital theater is likely to provide a superior picture quality compared to film thus making the movie displayed in this venue more desirable as the source for a movie pirate's operation. The distribution server 401 transmits encrypted content through the transmission path 403 (or alternatively, the media) to enhance the content's security, and the theater client 402 has a decrypter 404 for decrypting the movie before sending it to a projector 405 for display on a theater screen 406. Despite such protection, however, there are various points where the movie content is available in an insecure form. For example, a pirate camcorder 407 might record the movie playing on the theater screen 406 so that the recorded movie may be distributed through pirate distribution channels 408. As another example, other points of vulnerability to pirating may be the interface between a playback device (not shown) and the projector 405 or some point within the projector 405.
Generally, a theater operator is under some obligation to the content owner to attempt to limit his customer's attempts to illegally make copies with a camcorder within his theater. Obviously, he is also obligated to ensure that his employees who have access to movie content adhere to the law. As such, a copyright owner can legitimately argue that a theater which is a source of pirated movies should be obliged to compensate the copyright owner appropriately if that theater is a source of pirated content.
Post-Production
The current process for producing a movie entails the distribution of tasks among a large number of employees and contractors. As depicted in FIG. 5, with the rapid increase in the capability of computers and networks, such a process often involves the distribution of pieces of a movie or other A/V content from a central publisher computer 501 out to contractor computers 502, 503 and 504 to provide for a distributed work environment 500. This distributed work environment improves the efficiency of the production process but also makes a greater portion of the A/V content 506 vulnerable to copying or inappropriate re-distribution through pirate distribution channels 513. Piracy from the post-production work environment can sometimes even result in pirated movies hitting the street prior to theatrical release. Again, this negatively impacts the content owner's revenue stream.